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Czech Utility Scraps Nuclear Plants Over Costs

CEZ, the largest utility in the Czech Republic, scrapped plans for two nuclear reactors.

The problem? As usual, it came down to cost. The $15 billion dollar reactors wouldn’t have been feasibly without guarantees surrounding the purchase price of power from the government and the government, which is also the majority shareholder in the utility, would not provide them.

I wrote about the problem in this space back in December. Canodle Partners, a research firm, noted that the two Temerlin reactors would not be economically viable unless they could sell power for 115 Euros per megawatt hour to someone and at the time, the price of power in Europe hovered around 40 Euros per megawatt hour.

In thermal nuclear reactors (LWRs in specific), the coolant acts as a moderator that must slow down the neutrons before they can be efficiently absorbed by the fuel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since then, pricing has dropped even more, even in Germany where power prices can be higher because of a large percentage of renewables. Power for delivery to Germany will be under 35 Euros, according to BloombergBloomberg.

Both the government and the CEZ say they will continue to look at nuclear but the indications aren’t promising. Even though solar panel prices may rise this year, the overall trend is down.

New technologies and data systems are also making it easier to make efficiency gains. Japan has recovered about half of the baseline power it lost when nuclear plants were shut down after Fukushima through efficiency measures. Some of the efficiency measures required personal sacrifices or behavioral changes: employees were allowed to dress more casually to reduce demand for air conditioning. But Japan is also rapidly installing advanced building management systems and software that can curb peak power and demand. In these situations, people don’t even know they are using less power.

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